EEE102L: Basic Electrical and Electronics

Engineering
Module – 6: Semiconductor Devices and Applications

Dr. Aarthy.M
Assistant professor senior,
Dept. of Micro & Nano Electronics, SENSE
VIT University, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India, 632014

04/25/2023 Dr.Aarthy.M, Asst.Prof.Sr., SENSE, VIT 1

Rectifier
 What is a Rectifier??????
• The circuit that converts the alternating (AC) into a
voltage continuous voltage (DC) are called Rectifiers
• A diode conducts current only in one direction from the anode to its
cathode and it makes them ideal for Rectification
• The diodes are connected together to form various types of rectifier
circuits such as “Half-wave”, “Full-wave” or “Bridge” rectifiers
Rectifier Circuits
Half Wave Rectifier
Working-HWR
Half-Wave Rectifier
Waveform of Half-Wave Rectifier
Average ,RMS Value of Half wave signal
 DC Value of a Half-Wave Signal

• The DC value of a half-wave signal is the same as the average value

• The average value of the signal over one cycle is calculated with
the below formula:

• The DC value of a half-wave signal is about 31.8% of the peak value

 A Second-order Approximation
• In reality, we do not get a perfect half-wave voltage across the
load resistor
• Because of the barrier potential, the diode does not turn on until
the source voltage reaches about 0.7V.
• The output voltage is 0.7V lower than the peak source voltage

• Therefore the more accurate formula to calculate the DC value of a half-

wave signal is:
 Ripple
• The variation of the rectified output waveform during positive and
negative half cycles produces a waveform with a large amount of
Ripple (the fluctuating part)

• Ripple  Periodic Variation in output DC voltage due to improper

suppression of input AC signal
 Filtering the Output of a Rectifier

• The output from a half-wave rectifier is a pulsating DC voltage

• To obtain pure DC voltage, we need to filter the half-wave signal

by connecting a capacitor known as a smoothing capacitor
Filtering the Output of a Rectifier
 Limitations of HWR
• If the load resistor is small for a given capacitor value, a high current
will flow through the load which discharges the capacitor more quickly
and results in increased ripples
• As long as the RC time constant is much greater than the time period,
the capacitor remains almost fully charged and we get a perfect DC
output voltage
• To have a greater RC time constant, we need a larger value capacitor
but its practically difficult
• In HWR, there is no output during the negative half cycle hence half of
the power is wasted
• Because of these major disadvantages the half-wave rectifiers are
rarely used
 The Full-Wave Rectifier
• The half wave rectifier is used in some low power applications such
as signal and peak detector

• The most used rectifier in the power rectification field is the full wave
rectifier

• The FWR is more complex than the half wave rectifier

• The DC output voltage is higher than that of the HWR

• The output has much less ripples, which makes it easier to produce a
smooth output waveform
FWR
Full-Wave Rectifier
Waveform of Full-Wave Rectifier
 DC Value of a Full-Wave Signal

• The DC value of a Full wave signal is twice as Half wave signal

• The average value of the signal over one cycle is calculated with
the below formula:

• The DC value of a full-wave signal is about 63.6% of the peak value

 A Second-order Approximation
• In reality, we do not get a perfect full-wave voltage across the
load resistor
• Because of the barrier potential, the diode does not turn on until
the source voltage reaches about 0.7V
• The output voltage is 0.7V lower than the peak source voltage


V p(out )  V p(in)
0.7V
• Therefore the more accurate formula to calculate the DC value of a full-
wave signal is:

Vdc  2Vp(in)  0.7V


 Filtering the Output of a Rectifier

• The output from a full-wave rectifier is a pulsating DC voltage

• To obtain pure DC voltage, we need to filter the full-wave signal

by connecting a capacitor known as a smoothing capacitor
Filtering the Output of a Rectifier
 Limitations of FWR
• One of the disadvantages of FWR is center-tapped full-wave rectifier
design

• In high-power rectification, the cost and size of such

transformers increase substantially

• Another disadvantage is that because of the center tap, only half of the
secondary voltage is used for rectification

• To overcome these disadvantages four diodes are connected together

in a “bridge” configuration to produce a Full Wave Bridge Rectifier
 The Full-Wave Bridge Rectifier
• More popular full-wave rectifier design exists and is built using
four- diodes connected in Wein-bridge network format is known as a
Full-Wave Bridge Rectifier

• The advantage of this type of design is does not require a

special center-tapped transformer which drastically reduces its size and
cost

• Bridge rectifiers are used much more than full-wave rectifiers

Full-Wave Bridge Rectifier
Waveform of Full-Wave Rectifier
 DC Value of a Full-Wave Signal

• The DC value of a Full wave signal is twice as Half wave signal

• The average value of the signal over one cycle is calculated with
the below formula:

• The DC value of a full-wave signal is about 63.6% of the peak value

Average ,RMS Value of Full wave ,Bridge rectifier
 A Second-order Approximation
• In reality, we do not get a perfect full-wave voltage across the load
resistor
• Because of the barrier potential, the diode does not turn on until the
source voltage reaches about 0.7V
• The bridge rectifier operates two diodes at a time, two diode drops
(0.7 * 2 = 1.4V) of the source voltage are lost in the diode. So the peak
output voltage is given by:
1.4
V p(out )  V p(in)
V

Vdc  Vp(in) 1.4V


 Filtering the Output of a Rectifier

• The output from a full-wave rectifier is a pulsating DC voltage

• To obtain pure DC voltage, we need to filter the full-wave signal

by connecting a capacitor known as a smoothing capacitor
Filtering the Output of a Rectifier
 Limitations of Bridge FWR
• The only disadvantage of the bridge rectifier is that the output voltage
is two diode drops (1.4V) less than the input voltage

• This disadvantage is only a problem in very low voltage power

supplies

• For instance, if the peak source voltage is only 5V, the load voltage will
have a peak of only 3.6V. But if the peak source voltage is 100 V, the
load voltage will be close to a perfect full-wave voltage (the diode
drops are negligible)
 RMS and DC voltage
• The RMS voltage of HWR is

VRMS  Vm
2
• The RMS voltage of FWR is

VRMS  Vm
2
• The average/DC voltage of HWR is
Vdc  Vm

• The average/DC voltage of FWR is
Vdc  2Vm

 Ripple factor
• The ratio of the effective value of AC component to the DC component of the
output is defined as the Ripple factor and is denoted by r
V AC
r 
V DC
VRMS  V 2DC 
2
V
V 2
2
V
AC
r  RMS DC
VAC 2
V RMS VDC
2

 V DC
2 2
r  VR M S  1 r  IR M S   1
   

 VDC   IDC 
• For HWR, the ripple factor is 1.21
• For FWR, the ripple factor is 0.48
 Efficiency
• The ratio of DC output power to the AC input power of a rectifier
is called as its efficiency. It is denoted by η.

P DC

2 P AC
V
 DC
PDC  R
L
2
 VD C 

  
2
V
 RMS  VRMS 
PAC  RL

• For HWR, the efficiency is 40.5

%
• For FWR, the ripple factor is 81
 Form Factor
• The ratio of RMS value to the average value of an alternating quantity is
known as its form factor

V RMS
FF 
V DC

• For HWR, the form factor is 1.57

• For FWR, the form factor is 1.11
 Peak Factor
• The peak factor is defined as the ratio of the maximum value to
the RMS value of an alternating quantity

Vm
PF 
V RM S

• For HWR, the peak factor is 2

• For FWR, the peak factor is 1.1414
 Numerical problems

A diode having internal resistance rf = 20Ω is used for half-wave

rectification. If the applied voltage v = 50 sinωt and load resistance RL=
800 Ω, find :
(i) Im, Idc, Irms (ii) a.c. power input and d.c. power output (iii) d.c. output
voltage (iv) efficiency of rectification
Numerical problems
Dr.Aarthy.M, Asst.Prof.Sr., SENSE, VIT 44